Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Korea Weekend Box Office - July 11-13

John Woo's epic RED CLIFF got off to a pretty good start last weekend, as it had the biggest opening weekend for any Chinese-language film ever in Korea. With over 800,000 admissions in its first four days, distributor Showbox thinks it might be able to make it to 3 million admissions before its run is over, which would make it the all-time biggest Chinese film in Korea.

Getting to 3 million is going to be tough, though, with THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD opening this Thursday. I have a feeling GBW is going to be on just about every screen on the peninsula... going to be a very tough weekend for the competition next weekend.

As for this weekend's movies... PUBLIC ENEMY RETURNS is still doing fairly well, and has not inched past the 4 million admissions mark. Looks like 5 million is pretty unlikely, but not a bad run.

Will Lee Jun-ik's SUNNY be this year's D-WAR to GBW's MAY 18? I.e., can Lee's film (which will be released July 24) piggyback off of GBW's excitement without being overwhelmed by the competition, similar to how D-WAR and MAY 18 both did well last year?. Still a couple of weeks ago from finding out.

Last year, the studios pretty much left August open for Korean films to do well. This year, however, we have WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT coming quickly, so there could be a lot more competition.

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About Me

I am a freelance writer and producer, currently living in Europe. But for over 12 years I was based in South Korea, where I scribbled for The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Newsweek, the New York Times, and more. My book about the Korean entertainment industry is out at last -- POP GOES KOREA: BEHIND THE REVOLUTION IN MEDIA, MUSIC AND INTERNET CULTURE (Stone Bridge Press).